Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever

Chapter 282: Chapter 282 – Sera, will you stop?

Marigold giggled, her little voice dropping into something almost theatrical, like she’d rehearsed this a hundred times and loved every single run of it.

”Daddy is busy, but daddy loves Marigold so much.” Her fingers counted each line like she was ticking off something sacred. ”Everything he’s doing is for Marigold. Marigold is the one who inherits everything daddy is preparing. Daddy is preparing Marigold to take care of everything in the future because he loves Marigold so much.”

The words came out clean, polished, perfect. Not like a child reciting a bedtime prayer. Like someone who actually believed it deep in her bones.

Voren’s whole face glowed with warmth. That hard, unreadable mask he always wore cracked open, a laugh came out of him. Not a polished laugh. Not the kind he used in boardrooms or at galas when something mildly amusing was said.

This one was real. Loose. Warm in a way that caught Seraphine completely off guard, like walking into a room expecting cold air and finding a fireplace instead.

”Good.” His voice was softer than she’d ever heard it. ”And how does it end?”

Marigold bounced slightly on the bed, barely able to hold herself still. The giggles came first, rolling out of her before the words could even follow.

”Whenever daddy is not around, Marigold shouldn’t think that daddy doesn’t love her.” Her tiny chin lifted, proud of herself. ”She should understand that daddy is away because he’s preparing better things for her.”

”Good.”

Just that. One word, and the way he said it made it sound like the highest praise a person could ever receive.

Seraphine stood there absorbing all of it, and something cold crept slowly up the back of her neck.

Because she understood now. This wasn’t just a father being sweet with his daughter. This was architecture. Voren had built something inside that little girl’s mind, brick by careful brick, and it had been done so gently, so lovingly, that Marigold didn’t even know she was carrying it.

If Voren walked out of this hospital today and never came back, if he disappeared or died or simply stopped existing, Marigold would never doubt. Never question.

The idea was already planted too deep to be pulled out. She was the heir to the Ashkael empire, and everything attached to it. No one could walk up to that child and tell her different. The foundation had already been poured.

The thought didn’t warm Seraphine. It unsettled her in a way she couldn’t quite name.

Before she could sit with it too long, something else pulled her attention. Marigold had stretched her small hand out toward Voren, and Voren had taken it without a word but then they did something strange.

Their fingers laced together in this elaborate little shake, thumbs hooking, pinky fingers curling, a whole ridiculous sequence that clearly had its own rules and its own meaning. It was their thing.

Something they’d made up between the two of them. It was silly. Completely childish. And Voren did it without a single trace of self-consciousness, like nothing in the world mattered more right then than getting that handshake exactly right.

Something about it made Seraphine’s chest tight.

Because it hit her then, the documents. Voren’s paperwork. All those forms and filings she’d seen with no next of kin listed anywhere. Nothing. A blank where a name should have been.

She’d wondered about it before and let it go, but standing here watching how he’d woven himself into this child’s understanding of the world, it came back sharp.

Was it because Marigold was still too young to be named legally? Was that why the lines were empty? Was he trying to set up a trustee? Someone to hold things in place until she was old enough to take them?

And if that was it, wouldn’t Ravyn be the obvious choice? They were best friends. Or at least that was the word everyone used. Ravyn spoke about Voren like he was the axis the world rotated on.

But watching Voren now, watching the quiet precision of everything he’d just done, Seraphine wasn’t so sure that friendship ran the same depth on his side. Maybe Ravyn trusted Voren completely. Maybe that trust only went one direction.

The longer she stood there, the smaller she felt. And then, without warning, she began to long for her daughter. The ache that followed was immediate and physical, somewhere behind her ribs.

She turned toward the door. ”I need to prepare for a surgery tomorrow.”

Marigold’s head snapped up like a small animal catching a sound. Her eyes found Seraphine instantly, wide and suddenly very serious for a five-year-old.

”Daddy.” The word came out urgent, almost a command. ”You have to stop mommy. She can’t leave.”

Voren’s gaze moved to the doorway. Something crossed his face just for a second, quick and unguarded, there and gone before it fully formed. He was already rising to his feet.

”I’ll go talk to her.” He touched Marigold’s hand once, quick and reassuring. ”You’ll be okay with Jasmine?”

”Yes, yes.” Marigold waved him off like she had no patience for the question. ”Go talk to mommy. Go.”

The hallway outside was the busy, nurses moving with purpose. Seraphine kept her eyes forward and her pace steady. Heels quiet on linoleum. She did not look back.

”Sera.”

Voren’s voice carried down the hall like it owned the space. A couple of heads turned, but Seraphine didn’t stop.

Voren cut around a nurse pushing a chart cart, sidestepped a man in a visitor’s badge who was standing too far into the middle of the walkway, and kept moving.

”Sera, will you stop?”

She didn’t. The elevator was at the end of the hall. That was the only destination that mattered. She reached it and pressed the button and stood there, eyes on the floor indicator above the doors, willing it to move faster. The number blinked. Didn’t move.

Come on.

Then his hand closed around her arm, not rough, not violent, just firm, and he turned her toward him before she could do anything about it.

Their eyes met, and Voren’s expression changed immediately. The firm set of his jaw loosened, and something flickered behind his eyes. Confusion first, then something harder to read.

Because hers were wet, not streaming, just that specific brightness that eyes get right before a person loses the fight they’ve been quietly having with themselves.

”What’s going on?” The sharpness was gone from his voice. ”Why do I see tears in your eyes?”

Please dive into any of my completed books in the meantime:

1. Two Times Rejected Luna, the Desire of All Alphas

2. Crimson Moon Redemption: My Alpha’s Brutal Mistake

3. The President’s Pregnant Ex-Wife

4. OMG! My Crippled Husband Is a Hot, Powerful CEO